The Undead Next Door
by izbels
Summary: It's probably not normal to see your dead boyfriend on a nightly basis, but this is what is happening to Bella Swan, Forensics student and pissed off girlfriend. Published in real time. Drabblish. Yes its a word I think...
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1.**_

**Stephenie Meyer owns all rights to Twilight and the characters. Please consider this a blanket admission that I am using her characters without her permission and that it covers all future chapters.**

**10AM Tuesday Night **

The glass slips out of my hand of its own volition. I blink, trying hard to make the synapses in my brain agree with what I have just seen.

I look next door again and from my deck I can see clearly into my neighbours' pool area. I am sure that I saw him standing there just a second ago. I take a step forward and stand on the shattered glass with my bare feet. I feel the breeze quicken suddenly around me, and in an instant it is gone. But it leaves me with the familiar scent of him.

Which would be okay, except he has been dead for four years.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

**10.20PM Tuesday Night**

I have spent the last twenty minutes picking glass out of my foot and hobbling around to get my Edward dossier. It's a mixture of childhood photos of us: he the older boy next door, and me the girl who adored him from the moment she laid eyes on him as an awkward eleven-year-old. It is filled initially with photos of me looking up at him adoringly while he is looking at another girl, or one of his mates. The photos morph; it's then just the two of us, our faces pushed together as we pose for shots with his camera or mine. Photos of us at the beach, holding hands, at his formal, then my formal. We were always together once he finally noticed me, the girl he loved; the girl next door.

I always hold my breath when I get to the back section of the dossier. These images and documents are the ones that I stole, or were given by the police officers where I do my required work experience for uni. They all seem to understand that I need to know what happened. It has been my driving force for the last four years. I hold my breath as I turn the pages to the night where our relationship changed.

It's a picture of his bedroom, the room where we had first tentatively made love when his parents were away. There is blood splattered high on the walls. "Arterial splatter" I discovered it was called; the unique and forceful gush that arterial blood makes when an artery is punctured. It was covering his picture of "The Scream" and a few of his athletic ribbons. There were never any girlie posters in his room once we started officially dating.

I remember walking into his house and finding the front door open, a weird iron smell tainting the air. I hadn't screamed when I saw his room, I had saved that for when I'd run through the house, panic stricken, the bile rising in my throat at just how much blood there was everywhere. When I saw his parents in the back pool, I had screamed until my throat was ripped sore and my voice left my body.

Edward's body was never found. The blood in his bedroom was his and came to a measurement of 5.8 litres according to the pathologist working the case.

A well-read document falls to my feet as I turn to the next page.

I don't need to look at it; its words are etched in my memory. It's Dr Grunig's report. The final line says, "Blood loss incompatible with life."

Tears hit the page as I pick up the paper.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

**2.18AM Wednesday morning**

I am awake and I can't get the image of Edward out of my head.

I replay my day in my mind. A hectic morning spent kicking Renee and Charlie out of their house and packing them off to start their sixteen-month holiday around the world—my graduation the only drawcard for their return. I spent most of the afternoon unpacking boxes and moving back in after spending most of the last few years living with mates and doing the usual uni student thing, living in dodgy accommodation with revolving room mates. I had two glasses of red wine, the good stuff pinched from mum and dad's cellar—hey, I was celebrating their departure! And I watched the sun go down over St Lucia, the suburb I now live in again.

Eventually my eyes were drawn to the yard next door, where I'd spent many a summer trying to get Edward to notice me, and then two summers trying to get him to behave decently when we were outside so that my parents wouldn't see us dry humping every time we were in the pool together.

And then I saw him, clear as day, standing by the pool, hands in his jeans' pockets, a simple grey V-neck T, scruff appearing on his face, looking dishevelled but much the same as he'd always looked. I had nearly waved to him, like I always had, but the glass fell out of my hand. I think that was what happened. By the time I glanced away to pay attention to the glass that had shattered its contents on the timber deck, he had disappeared.

But he was corporeal. He wasn't a figment of my imagination.

Was he?

**Update 1 of 8 for today...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

**8.45AM Wednesday**

I wake this morning and the first thing I do is open the doors to the deck and peer over at the neighbour's yard. It doesn't surprise me that I don't find him standing there.

Something tells me in my bones that he only comes out at night.

**Update 2 of 8 for today...**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5.**

**6PM Wednesday**

I have spent the day cleaning and unpacking boxes and am having a mini anxiety attack now as the sun goes down.

What if he turns up again?

Or worse, what if he doesn't?

**Third of eight updates for today; next update 7.12PM**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6.**

**7.12PM Wednesday**

Fuck you summer—bloody sun, go down already.

I'm worried the neighbours will think I'm a weird pervy stalker. I've spent the last twenty minutes running around and finding my video camera, then an extension cord to charge it, then the tripod so I can hide it behind the window in my bedroom to record while I try to look like I am not spying on my neighbours' yard, even though I am intently doing exactly that. I have rearranged one of Mum's plants that I know I'm probably going to kill while she is away; it's providing me with a modicum of coverage to assist me in my work.

I'm no good at this spy thing. My arse is hurting on this Adirondack chair that my mother insisted on buying for the deck and I'm starting to feel that it desperately needs cushions. I can't risk ducking inside to grab any, in case I miss him again.

**Fourth of eight updates for today. **

**Next update 8.01PM**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7.**

**8.01 PM Wednesday**

The sun is down. It's officially dark.

I'm now panicking because what if he does show up? Do I shout out to him? Do I just wave? Do I try to look cool and calm and casual, just in case it's Edward's doppelgänger and in some strange twist of the universe, he has been sent to fill the vacancy in my heart that has been there since Edward… well, died. Or disappeared.

The words repeat in my mind.

_Blood loss incompatible with life._

**Fifth of eight updates for today.**

**Next update: 9.07PM**

**Thanks to cocoalvinoz for being a gorgeous Beta...xx**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8.**

**9.07 PM Wednesday**

As a spy I am bored. Boredy boredy bored. I start to say bored like I am the chef off the Muppets. Was he Swedish? Boredy boredy bored...Chop chop chop...

I close my eyes just for a moment and rest back on the chair. The sky is kind of pretty; a sprinkling of stars has appeared even though it threatened rain earlier.

I hear a discrete clearing of the throat. I jump up, probably not too stealthily, my cool facade a forgotten memory.

He is there. Dressed the same. The pool is lit up like always and I can clearly see him in its pale blue luminescence. He is staring at me. His face looks confused, like when you are in a shopping centre and you see someone you think you know and are trying to work out quickly who they are, deciding if you should say hello just in case they think you are a complete douchebag. You don't want to be sitting in the car realising it was your boss's wife. Then again you don't want to be standing in the aisle of the shopping centre starting up a conversation with your gynaecologist's secretary.

My heart starts to hurt and all the familiar pangs of what it was like in the months following his death start to reappear.

If I am crazy then this is a delusion that I don't want to stop.

**Sixth of eight updates for today.**

**Next update: 9.25PM**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9.**

**9.25PM Wednesday**

We have silently glared at each other for quite a while now. My voice has disappeared and I can't find it. I can't find my courage to speak to him.

I'm in a weird place between grief and hope. If it _is_ him, I am going to die, and if it isn't him, then I am going to _want_ to die, and I can't go back to that place again.

**Seven of eight updates for today. **

**Next update: 9.39 PM**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10.**

**9.39PM Wednesday**

Our silent staring competition is broken finally by a shout.

"What the hell are you doing?" It's Eric, the weird 45-year-old son of our neighbours. The backyard lights become ablaze as he flicks them on.

I panic and duck in case it's me he's talking about, the bulky potted cycad giving me some coverage. I figure I can crawl to my bedroom and maybe duck into it, hoping that Eric won't see me and I can pretend to be a figment of his imagination.

My pulse is racing in my ears.

I try to look next door and I can now see Eric walking around the pool area towards the back of their yard.

"No Mum, I think they've buggered off; bloody kids on school holidays." I can see Eric giving one last look as he slides the glass door shut and pulls the heavy curtains. The lights turn off a few moments later.

I close my eyes and wish Edward back. As I stand, I hold onto the rail, my eyes adjusting to the dimness once again, I realize I can't see him.

And wishing desperately for another hour doesn't make him come back either.

I should have said something to him when I could have.

I'm such a fucking pussy.

**Eight of eight updates for today...or is it?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**10.30PM Wednesday**

I have skulked back into my room and decided to just go to bed and try to put Edward out of my mind.

My video failed. The bloody fucking cycad was covering the perfectly fine view of the back yard.

Nine re-watches has garnered me no further information.

I look out the window and can't see Edward.

I lie on my bed. Heartbroken and shattered.

**Next update 9.25AM tomorrow...ish**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12.**

**9.25 AM Thursday**

I hate it when dreams mix in with your reality and for the first moments when you wake you can't quite tell which one is which. I stretch my hand out to touch Edward's face; he always slept on my right side. I'm smiling, I think, until my hand touches the empty cold pillow. Old habits die hard with me. Even after four years, I've only slept on the left side of any bed, leaving the other half for him, just in case miracles happen.

When I lived here, before he was killed, he would wait until my parents went to bed and he would climb up the Begonia trellis, cutting himself on its sharp thorns in the process, just so we could spend a few hours snuggled up together. We would sometimes sleep, but more often than not, we would quietly slip out of bed and make love on the floor, as the springs in the bed gave away our secret trysts. He would whisper to me, telling me he loved me, showing me with his hands and mouth that he was meant for me, and I in return was meant for him. He would find our secret stash of condoms that I had between the mattresses, and we learned how to make love together. Each the other's firsts -I kept him my last.

I get up and reach between the mattresses and find our rumpled stash. In what is probably a strange move, I inhale the packaging, knowing his hands were the last to touch it.

It's not the first time I think I'm going to cry today.

**Next update: 12.35AM.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13.**

**12.35AM Thursday**

I have managed to haul my arse to work and have been diligently processing samples from a crime earlier today. I hold the victims's toothbrush in my hand, his body is so badly beaten that they had to go to his mother to gain DNA confirmation that the carcass they found is his. I chop a few of the brushes spindles and start the process of analysis. It should take four days of processing before we can see if the alleles, the victim's unique DNA are a match.

I remember having to find Edward's toothbrush and handing it over to the police for processing; somewhere in his dossier I have a print out confirming the crime scene blood is his. It would be quite pretty and artistic if it weren't so devastating. I contemplate spending some time in the evidence room to play around with Edward's file. His mother's and father's are neatly next to his. I've surrounded Edwards box with theirs, like a morbid family of bits and pieces, photos, documents and most importantly samples.

If Edward were alive he might be considered to be their killer.

If Edward were alive I might kill him for hiding all these years.

**Next Update: 2.45PM**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14.**

**2.45PM Thursday**

I'm antsy. Normally the thrill of processing specimens keeps me busy and stops me from over thinking life. I'm busy taking names and kicking metaphorical butt in a scientific non-violent kind of way. Well, my small contribution of adding chemicals and running machines seems to be important when court comes into session at any rate. Formality and paperwork keeps me distant yet focused. People don't bother you when you have a pile of plastic bags and swabs in front of you.

I _could_ just duck into the evidence room for half an hour.

I know those files by heart. Why the hell do I continue to think that my 500th review of the little brown boxes is going to make a rat's arse of difference? More experienced folk have looked before me. Hell more experienced folk have taken pity on me and looked through them with me.

It's always the same.

_Blood loss incompatible with life._

**Next Update: 6.34PM**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15.**

**6.34PM Thursday**

You know in a horror movie when one of the characters comes home and they just know someone is in the house and you are sitting there in the cinema thinking, 'Why the fuck did they just walk in there? Leave you moron; just get in your fucking car and call the cops.'

I'm having one of those moments now.

I of course chose to foolishly enter my childhood home, the one I couldn't stand to visit once he was dead and it took me all these years to return to.

And I'm walking through the door like a dickhead. It's pushed open ever so slightly. I'm sure I locked it as I left. I'm anal about these things...

I drop my bag on the floor and it makes a shit ton of noise.

Now, even worse I'm calling out... Just like in the movies. Just before the girl gets killed.

"Hello is anyone here?"

**Next update: 7.45PM**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16.**

**7.45 PM**

I'm still alive. The house is eerily quiet. The whole suburb is quiet for that matter. No cicadas chirping, no birds coming into nest for the night. My imagination is in overdrive.

I'm sitting on my bed, in the dark, and trying to think about what's not right. Someone has been here. The scent of the room is different. That's what I'm telling myself. My things are probably in the same place, I'm not the neatest of people; maybe my hairbrush is not where I left it. I'd picked up a clip to put in my hair as I'd left and I thought I'd plonked it back on my dresser.

It's sitting on the other side of the room: near my bookshelves.

In an instant I know what's missing.

It's my dossier. His dossier.

He's been here.

**Next update: 8.07PM**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17.**

**8.07PM**

I'm better prepared this evening. Cushions are protecting my arse from crippling muscular pain. I have a throw rug draped across my legs. It's chilly for summer and the scent of a storm is in the air. I have a perfect view. So does my video camera after I managed to lift the tripod up on some books to give it a height advantage. If the thieving bastard does show up I'm going to call out to him.

I am.

Really.

**Next update: 10.45PM**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18.**

**10.45PM**

I'm a complete fail as a spy. I've managed to fall asleep.

What's strange is that the throw rug is no longer covering my legs.

I'm strangely disoriented.

I'm in my bed. Covers pulled up to my neck. How the fuck did I get here?

I'm lying on the left side of the bed.

And the pillow and the doona next to me are dinted.

Like someone has been lying here next to me.

I reach out and touch the pillow.

It's cold.

I turn on the light next to me, keeping the doona wrapped around me like it's an impenetrable force field of safety.

The pillow next to me however has yielded something unexpected.

A short brown-bronzed hair.

And it's not mine.

**Next update: 8.17AM Friday**

**Thanks to cocoalvinoz, mwah!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19.**

**8.17AM Friday**

Subterfuge was never a game I was good at. Not that I've ever played it before. Lying, cheating and stealing are not exactly my forte.

Then again having your boyfriend _allegedly_ murdered is enough to get you on the straight and narrow. It's also enough for you to chose the alternative as a career path. I shouldn't have let Edward's death define me, but it has.

I chose forensic pathology as a career path purely because I knew, one day, technology would catch up enough for me to try and solve his murder. The evidence was sitting neatly in three brown boxes. I just needed the smarts and the machinery to work it out. I can't continue to live with the, _is__he__or__isn__'__t__he?_It's killing me slowly.

So here I am at work, suspiciously early, with a small hair sample that I'm going to attempt to process as discretely as possible.

It takes four days. Everyone knows that. Nothing I can do will make this happen any quicker and I only have one shot.

This one little hair can tell me if he is alive or a figment of my imagination.

In four days I will either be checking myself into a mental hospital or I will be hunting him down.

**Next update: 10.05AM**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20.**

**10.05AM**

Nobody noticed I am here early. I am making a good show of pulling out the current box of evidence I am supposed to be working on. I slip my prized bronze coloured hair into my workload and am now sneaking it through to processing.

I just need to make sure no one cross validates the sample.

Because if someone does and then links it back to Edward I may have some explaining to do as to why I have a fresh sample from his body.

And I don't have a reasonable answer yet.

**Next update: 6.40PM**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21.**

**6.40PM**

Home again.

I walk in and decide to be bold this time. The door is open again.

"Hi, Edward, I'm home!"

I don't say it as strongly or with as much conviction as I would like.

Quite frankly I'd be fucking delighted if he had been secretly ransacking my house of a day while I was out. I dump the keys on the kitchen counter and look outside at the neighbour's pool like I've done so umpteen million times in the last few days.

Nope, just a pool.

I could never figure out why the house next door managed to get sold after being the site of a blood bath. I didn't even want to live next door. I'd begged my parents to move. But as both of them worked at the uni, it was a ridiculous argument. The house took months to sell. I'd slept in the spare room on the other side of the house, trying to keep as much physical distance as I could from the house and the pool.

Not just a pool.

It was the dumping ground of Edward's parents, Elizabeth and George Masen. Their bodies completely bloodless, they had bled out in the house, the killer carrying them and then throwing them into the pool; the chlorine and water effectively ridding them of evidence of their killer. The pool hadn't even darkened with bloodstains. They had looked like they were playing 'dead man floating' when I found them; their fingers touching as they bobbed up and down. I had jumped in to pull them out, but they were dead. Very dead. Throats gouged violently. I couldn't work out what they had done to deserve such a violent ending.

Edward and his parents were popular. The pool was the site of a constant stream of visitors. Any evidence found was therefore a moot point. But it was collected all the same, none showing up in any criminal database. Hair strands like needles in a haystack.

The minute I had finished high school I abandoned ship and left, the house a vortex of misery for me. It was where my Edward lived. Where we had loved.

And where he had died.

Allegedly.

**Next update: 7.50PM**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22.**

**7.50PM**

I'm set up again as I was last night. Except this time I've bought along a secret weapon, two cans of Mother are sitting next to me. I'm going to be hyperactive with heart palpitations, these caffeine drinks are deadly.

I refuse to go to sleep. Although this is a double edged sword.

I sort of hope that I do fall asleep, except I want to awaken as he carries me. So that, for the briefest of moments, I can be nestled next to his body, touching his skin, feeling his warmth and seeing those beautiful green eyes. Alive. Strong. Vibrant.

Mine.

I crack open the first can.

Awake it is.

**Next update: 10.12PM**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23.**

**10.12PM**

Fuck, it's him.

He didn't even need to cough to get my attention.

I stand.

I don't care if anyone can see me.

He looks up at me again. He looks the same. Maybe a little more dishevelled than two nights ago.

I take a breath. It's difficult to do so.

I take another one, and with all the courage I can muster I say his name.

"Edward?"

My hand automatically rises to my chest; my heart is beating so hard it's hurting me.

Tears well in my eyes. I blink them away.

He is gone.

**Next update: secret time...**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24.**

**10.18PM**

He is standing on my veranda. On my parents veranda.

He looks very, very much alive.

I like this delusion. I stand stock still in case I frighten him.

He looks confused, conflicted.

I think his heart wants him to stay but his head is saying otherwise.

I force myself to speak.

I squeak out the words.

"Did you move me last night, onto my bed?"

He nods. It's barely detectable. His eyes avert mine.

"Did you stay there for a while once you tucked me in?"

He nods, ever so slowly.

"Can you do it again?"

**Next update: Saturday 8.05AM**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25.**

**8.05AM Saturday**

I haven't gotten much sleep.

We didn't do a lot of talking.

In fact, I don't remember him saying a word.

We went into my room, Edward walked across to the other side of the bed. He took his usual position, lying on his left side, arm tucked under the pillow, as close to the middle as he could get.

I assumed my normal position—the mirror of his.

Our faces were mere centimetres away from the other; almost close enough to lose depth of field in our vision.

His face was beautiful. There were small creases at his eyes. We had always laughed a lot; I think that is where the creases came from. Even in the dimness of the evening sky I could see little pieces of him that I'd forgot. His forehead was maybe too long; his eyelashes a little too feminine, far too pretty to belong on a boy; freckles sprinkled across his otherwise pale skin. But you had to be up really close to notice them. Lips very full. Beautiful lips. Made for mine.

I tried not to stare at them for too long, in case my wanting got the better of me. He seemed to do the same.

We stared at each other like this was our last chance to memorise the other's face.

The caffeine hadn't lasted in my system long.

I was weary. I don't know when I fell asleep, but I just couldn't fight it.

I don't know when he left.

When I awoke he was gone.

This time I was left with a reminder of his stay.

A sprig of the Begonia bush was laid on a small torn piece of paper.

In his chaotic writing it said six little words.

_I will return to you tonight._

For the first time in years I feel something other than sadness. I feel hope.

**Next update: 20.30PM**


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26.**

**20.30 PM**

No skulking out on the veranda tonight. Edward has always kept his promises to me.

Except for the one where he promised I would die first.

We had the conversation about six months into our official relationship. I guess we just knew, even as a naive 17 and 18 year old that we were meant to be. We were meant to be together. Forever.

Or 70 years or so, growing old together and then being a cute decrepit couple. Still holding hands as we walked down the street together. Most likely because we were trying to stop the other one from falling over.

Edward had promised me that he would outlive me. He promised me this because he knew it would kill me if he died first. He promised to hold me in his arms and kiss me as I took my last dying breath.

Then he said he would top himself after making sure I was gone good and proper. No accidental Romeo and Juliet scene where I would wake up and find him dead, thus totally undoing the promise he had made.

We were only semi joking. I knew that he would do anything to spare me pain.

Which is why tonight we would have to have a deep and meaningful, because his leaving me made me die a little inside.

And if he leaves me again its going to finish the job.

**Next update: 21.00 PM**


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27.**

**21.00 PM**

He still isn't here. I contemplate if I should've changed the sheets. They've been on the bed for six days now.

But if he doesn't come I will regret not being able to sleep on sheets that he has touched.

I lie down on my side and pick up his pillow and take a big wiff.

It smells like him.

I can never wash these sheets again.

His sudden appearance at the foot of my bed startles me.

He says the first words that he has said to me in four years.

"I'm sorry."

I rush to him to hold him.

He takes a step back before I get there.

"No, I meant I am sorry, but I don't know who you are."

**Next update: It's a secret**


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

**8.27 AM Sunday morning.**

He has left me alone again. I wake up with the grogginess of a night spent in trauma.

The love of my life doesn't know who I am.

I cried. A lot.

He has sat and comforted me for most of the night. He said he is doing this because he knows I'm someone important to him. He described it like he knows that I'm his air.

His air.

I'm his air.

And yet he doesn't know who I am and my air keeps leaving my chest knocked out by another blow.

He is dead.

No he isn't.

Yes he is.

_I don't know who you are. _

The words are sickening.

Who am I to you? I was your fucking everything. Everything. When you held me we were complete, a unit, a team. We took on the world together.

Well we were going to. At least we rocked the suburb.

He told me that he felt that I could offer him answers. He seems to think I am a connection to his old life that he can't seem to recall.

At least it's not just me that he can't remember.

He's said that things are complicated and that he's in a difficult place.

I joke and ask is that like limbo or is it zombie talk?

He winces at this notion. His face screws up in that tormented way that it does.

I touched him.

His skin felt warm, maybe a little cooler than mine, but I could never tell if someone had a fever or was cold by feeling them with my hands anyway.

I don't think he is joking about not knowing who I am.

He seems to think his name is Edward Cullen.

This is some fucked up shit.

At 4am he said he had to go.

I was too exhausted to argue with him.

He promised to return.

I said he doesn't always keep his promises.

He said that doesn't sound like him.

I said "I don't think you are in a position to know that."

**Next update: 8.30PM**


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29.**

**8.30PM**

I hate Sundays. It's like you're mourning the weekend the whole day and lamenting having to work the next.

Except I have tomorrow off and Tuesday is the day I should get the results back on the mystery hair follicle. If it's his then I'll know I'm not crazy.

I have even googled and discovered that people with schizophrenia can have very vivid delusions that affect all of their senses: sight, touch, taste, smell and sound.

At this point I'm thinking I'm a very creative schizophrenic because I seem to be having them all.

Yay me.

**Next update: Secret.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30.**

**8.45PM**

I'm creating a list of things I want to ask my delusion. I mean Edward.

I'm also setting up my video camera to be operating; I will capture him on film.

I replay the tape from the other night. Well the avi, or whatever the fuck files are called on digital camera's these days.

It's just me standing on the veranda; the 'delusion' is out of shot. I am no Scorsese. I cannot seem to get this man on film.

But I will tonight.

Yep, this girl needs proof. Alleles and an avi are what I need.

And maybe a kiss.

Even if he is a delusion, I would still like a mental breakdown-inducing kiss.

Hey, don't judge, not till you have walked a mile in my crazy shoes.

**Next update 8.59PM**


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31.**

**8.59PM**

I nearly shit myself as he creeps into the room again.

"Holy fuck, you're stealth-like"

"Sorry."

"Yeah Edward, you seem to say that a lot." He shrugs his shoulders. He looks over at my dresser.

_Dang, busted._

"You have to turn off the camera, Bella." He points over to the little red camcorder.

Fucking hell he's observant. Well maybe not that observant. Sherlock Dipstick here has left it out in the open and its little red light is blazing away.

Curse my lack of spy capabilities.

I decide to be honest.

"I'm trying to work out if you are a delusion that my potentially traumatised mind has made up to protect itself from the stress of my parents leaving and returning to the house that overlooks the house that my boyfriend and his parents were murdered in. So, if you don't mind, I would really like to film you so later on I can check if you are real," I say it in one big exhaustive crazy sounding breath.

"Well, if I'm a delusion, Bella, when you watch it won't you just imagine that you are seeing me and therefore be confirming a delusion that you may or may not be having?" He raises his eyebrows in that weird way that he used to when he knew he had outsmarted me.

It happened a lot. He is, or _was_ a very smart boy.

"Well, Delusion, that seems like it's reasonable, and it's not like I can show anyone else the tape anyway to get them to confirm it."

Fuck so no avi, but I will have my alleles. I walk over to the camera, turn it off and plonk it into a drawer.

"So, what's your plan then, Edward?"

"I don't know, but I know that I only have a few more days to work out my past or I have to go."

This scares the shit out of me. Even if he is a delusion, I want him around.

**Next update: Secret.**

**Next update: Secret. Sorry not to give an official time..creating suspense and all...**


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32.**

**9.27PM**

We are sitting on my bed like old times, my delusion and I, and we're going through Edward's dossier.

He wants me to walk through our life together.

It's nice that Delusion wants to reminisce.

I point to a photo. It's Edward in a cast.

"This was the year after we moved in and you broke your arm. It was a stinking hot summer and you couldn't go in the pool because of the plaster. So your mum thought it would be nice if I kept you company for the whole of summer. I think your mum and my mum conspired to get us together. It may or may not have included your mum causing your broken arm. That was something that we used to think happened. Our mum's were very pro us getting together."

Delusion touches his right arm.

"It was this one, my right one wasn't it?"

"Yeah, are you remembering?"

Glimmer… A glimmer of hope is appearing...

"No, it's just not as straight as the other one and I have a weird scar here." He points to the jagged scar. Our local GP was always fucked up at doing stitches. I should know I have a lot of them.

'Glimmer of hope' leaves to go on vacation.

"Oh, yeah, sorry I was hoping this was triggering something." I'm only on the second page. I hope the happy photos trigger something before I get to the technical post-murder photos and documents.

Because, how the hell do you discuss with someone the events of their own parents murder, as well as their own?

I soldier on.

"This is when you went to high school and I was left in primary school. I used to get home way before you and I would wait thirty seconds before heading over to your place. I wasn't ever sure if you wanted me there with you, because you were a cool older boy, but I think at that stage I was just one of the boys." The photo's are of a skinny girl and a gangly pimply boy with big hair.

"This photo is the worse one. You were dating this girl, um, can't think of her name, but she hated me and when you broke up she told everyone it was because you were in love with me. You didn't talk to me for five months. It was horrible."

Delusion is intently staring at the photo, it's the one where Edward is staring at a pretty girl and he has his arm around her. I'm in the photo for some demented reason, like a smaller less glamorous third wheel.

"You were really pretty. I don't know why I didn't pay attention earlier."

"You were always very tolerant of me. Like I was a cousin or something. But after Year Ten, when I was fifteen, you started to pay a bit more attention. My boobs had of course kicked in by then."

"Yeah, well that's because I'm a boob man."

"How do you even know?"

"Well, I like your boobs now, so I guess some things are instinctive. Maybe I'm just that shallow."

"So it's my boobs that made you come back?"

"Bella, I don't know why I'm here. It's like I need to be. Like I said last night, you are my air, or the sun or something. I'm supposed to be here. For a little while anyway."

I don't like the talk of him being here for 'a little while'.

I like Delusion very much. I go back to babbling about the old photos.

"So this is about the time we got together. I was interested in one of your friends and we went camping. You got really mad at him for throwing fish guts at me and you pounded the crap out of him. He drove home that day. He'd been my ride there so I was stranded and I didn't have a tent. You let me have yours." My fingers trace the well-worn photo; it's a black and white. I was going through an artistic phase with my photography. Edward has his arm around me and we both look shit scared.

Like we know that this is a pinnacle moment.

Other photos are from the same trip. My favourite one was taken by someone who crept up behind us with my camera; we were sitting on the sand dunes watching the sun go down. Edward's arm is around my body and I'm leaning into him. We are oblivious to everyone else.

Not much is triggering Delusion's memory.

A day at a waterfall, when we went hiking, a bike ride, the not so secret place up at Mt Cootha where we use to... Yep, even that isn't triggering any memories.

We are getting dangerously close to the not-so-romantic part of the dossier.

His formal, where we came out as a couple. My formal...

Why don't I have more photos? Why aren't there more?

Tears are coming and I can't make them stop.

He pushes the file away and closes it with his foot.

He kicks it off the bed.

It hits with the floor with a thump.

Even though I know it's going to hit the floor heavily I still jump when it does.

It's a time bomb waiting to go off.

Delusion looks at me.

"I've seen the next pages Bella. I read that..." He makes sure I am looking at him, he is tracing my knees with his finger tips. "I read that you found them. I'm so sorry for that."

"You weren't there, there was so much blood. So, so, so much blood. Litres and litres splattered everywhere. And you were nowhere."

He knows that it's his turn to start answering questions.

"Please, I need to know, where have you been?"

**Next update: It's a secret...**

**Thank you so much for reading. Extra thank you's to those who are so diligently reviewing...I slipped you something extra in a review reply.**

**Cocoalvinoz managed beta today's chapters- she is a miracle worker considering she was also throwing a work party for hubs at her house!**


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33.**

**9.41PM**

We're lying on the bed. He has me in his arms and I'm snuggled into his chest. I feel his heart beating. It's calm and even.

My heart is beating like one of those weird performance art dance and music pieces: one where there's a dude with dreadlocked hair wearing fisherman's pants and possessing questionable personal hygiene.

"I want to tell you, Bella, I really, really do, because I want to be honest with you; you deserve that. But it's out of my control. I can't tell you where I've been, it's too dangerous."

For a moment I don't argue.

_Sure, why the hell not. I get it. No worries. Don't tell me where you've been for 4 years, 2 months and 3 days. I totally understand Mr Cryptic delusion._

Then my brain kicks in.

_Oh no, you didn't just wipe away 4 years, 2 months and 3 days of being MIA with a sentence saying 'it's out of your control.'_

I sit up.

"Please tell me that you are not just wiping this over and expecting me to be satisfied with the Top Gun answer you just gave me."

"What's the Top Gun answer?"

"Edward your memory really has been wiped. You know Top Gun, where Tom Cruise tells the chick that 'I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you' as his answer."

"Um, Bella, I could tell you, but please believe me, it wouldn't be me who would kill you."

I laugh.

He is deadly serious.

I stop laughing.

"Then can you answer me something else?"

"Um, maybe?"

"If you can't tell me where you've been, can you tell me..." I pause. I need to know the answer, although I don't want him to answer.

"What, Bella? What can I tell you: I don't know much."

"How long will I have you? You said you don't have much time."

**Next update: Monday very early AM**

**Question time. What do you think Edward is?**

**Cause maybe I don't have a clue myself yet! (Of course I do!)**


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34.**

**Monday 3.07AM**

Three more days.

Three more days with him, that's all he has got.

All _they_ have given him.

Three days to jog his memory.

Three days until maybe, j_ust__maybe_ we get our 'till death do us part'.

If only I can get him to remember. And maybe to fight for us.

Otherwise it's three days until I start my morbid counting of when I lost him again.

**Next Update: 8.49 AM**

**Please review your guesses as to what you think Edward is...**


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35.**

**Monday 8.49AM**

We talk a little.

We sleep.

He has stayed.

Something about not being able to go outside during the day.

**Next Update: 3.18PM**

**Was that a clue? Maybe not.**


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36.**

**Monday 3.18PM**

We're going through the list of questions I've compiled.

Well, more I've been reading the list and he's been shaking his head.

"What's your oldest memory?"

"Bella, we have to be careful, I'm under guidelines."

"Just tell me what you can."

"I remember being injured and unwell for a very long time."

He puts his hand up to his throat.

There is only a small scar there. Nothing like what his parents endured. It's barely noticeable under his collar.

Maybe they stopped him from being brutalised as much as his parents. Maybe he feels obligated to them for saving his life.

"What did they tell you happened? I mean, about why you don't remember anything."

"That it was necessary to keep their organisation protected. That there had been a breach. Breaches are not taken lightly."

"Really? That's your answer? This cloak and dagger shit is doing my head in, Edward Anthony Masen or Cullen or whatever." I get up from the kitchen table.

I clear away the food we have eaten; I dump plates in the sink and have a mini-meltdown.

He is behind me, rubbing my arms up and down like he used to. It's infuriatingly comforting.

I pull away.

"Okay, final question and this one you give me a decent answer, because I am getting the shits with you and I don't want to." I'm all semi-cranky and am trying to turn the situation around. Maybe I can use my feminine wiles.

"Do you still remember how to kiss me?"

**Next update: Secret...**


	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter 37.**

**3.45PM**

We've just pulled up for air.

Lines of my favourite movie are running through my head.

_Since the invention of the kiss, there have only been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind._

Actually, this one _shat_ on all of them, then locked them in a closet, which was in the Titanic and then sunk it.

That was one hell of a kiss.

Maybe even better than before.

"Not to ruin the moment, but have you been practising?"

"No. No I haven't. But this is the key Bella."

"Kissing is the key?"

"Well, it's a nice bonus, but this is the reason I have been allowed to come back."

"What for a kiss? Wow, I must be pretty special."

"No, Bella, the reason is because I am no use to them when my mind is elsewhere. And considering I have no memory, what we have must be very powerful. It's made them rethink what they've done."

"So, is there a chance for you to be free? I mean to be normal, back here with me?"

Glimmer of hope returns from her vacation.

"I don't think so. They were waiting for me to be older before they um, do what they do; before I can join officially."

"So you have something important to them? What like a skillset or something? Edward, you were nineteen when you died, I mean disappeared, what the hell can you offer them that no one else can?"

"No more questions. I have to be careful. We have to be careful. We are treading on thin ice."

"Edward this is Queensland; no ice here."

He whispers into my ear.

"They are going to kill you if I'm not careful."

That shuts me up.

**Next update: 6.12PM**


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38.

6.12PM

Being told that you could get killed has a sobering effect on a girl.

Luckily, Edward has come up with the most inventive way of taking my mind off things.

We have pashed all afternoon. Good old-fashioned pashing and groping.

I grab his arse.

He grabs mine.

We are using all the space on the couch.

Now the floor.

We are bashing into things as we make our way down the hallway.

Lips constantly locked.

Hands everywhere.

He manages to unclip my bra and I take it off through my sleeves to allow easier access.

We make it to the bedroom.

Clothes get taken off.

Four years melts away.

We are naked in my bedroom.

I'm not embarrassed or nervous.

This is Edward.

We've done this before. Frequently if I'm being honest.

If it was an Olympic sport, we'd be sharing the podium as gold medallists.

We used to be able to do this three or four times a night.

We had sex stamina.

He pushes me onto the bed and starts kissing me everywhere.

Everywhere.

Holy crap I am fucking loving this Delusion.

He reaches under the mattress, groping backwards and forwards.

"What are you looking for?" I ask.

"Our stash you moron."

Oh, I forgot that it's under there. This is normal procedure.

Holy fuck.

We both sit up.

"I remember."

Next update: Secret time...

Does anyone remember the movie that I pinched the line out of?


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39.

10.12PM

We have had sex multiple times now.

It's been heavenly.

Little pieces of our life together are coming through.

He remembers when he told me there was a spider on the branch of the tree we were climbing.

He remembers that I fell off the branch in an attempt to escape said invisible spider.

He remembers holding my hand as I had the stitches done to my arm.

He remembers a shit load of stitches. Meh, I was accident prone in my teens.

He reminds me why it's him that always climbs the begonia trellis and jumps the fence, instead of the other way around.

More stitches.

He remembers the most romantic day of our life together.

It was when he made an impassioned speech to our principle about why he wanted to invite someone not in grade 12 to the senior formal.

He told our principle that I was the girl he loved, and that in twenty years time when he met us in a shopping centre and we were there with our kids, he wouldn't feel awkward having broken the rules because everyone should have the right to take the love of their lifetime to their formal, regardless of some archaic rules that say otherwise.

The principle had still said no.

Edward rung his wife and made the same impassioned plea to her.

The next day the principle caved.

Edward always had a way with women.

I let him have his way with me again.

Next Chapter: 7.48AM Tuesday.


	40. Chapter 40

**Chapter****40.**

**Tuesday 7.48AM**

I'm chucking a sickie from work. I know that my sample will have processed, but it should be sitting there in my in-file. No one should touch it; it's against protocol for anyone to touch work that is in progress from another lab tech.

Plus, I already know the answer.

It's him, it's really him.

And when he leaves me tomorrow I won't regret having missed a day of work.

We have a lot of living to fit into today.

And we need to come up with a plan.

**Next Chapter: 10.09AM**


	41. Chapter 41

**Chapter 41.**

**Tuesday 10.09AM**

We make plans about our future.

Actually I make plans.

Edward is jittery. He just nods and says 'yes' a lot to my ideas.

He panics at every noise outside.

I'm internally starting to panic myself.

**Next update: 4.14PM**


	42. Chapter 42

**Chapter 42.**

**Tuesday 4.14PM**

I've never had a Fedex courier delivery before.

It's kind of exciting.

I go to rip open the package and Edward stops me.

He looks at the address.

It's international.

He starts to panic.

"They know that I have my memories back."

I'm getting pissed off at the 'theys'. 'They' told me I couldn't sit near the TV as a kid and that Coca-Cola was bad for me. Now 'they' know that Edward has his memory back.

Well, I hope 'they' also know that we have been fucking like bunnies and that we haven't even bothered using our stash. 'They' can kiss my arse.

"How?"

"Their reach is far and they have people with abilities."

"Well, I hope 'they' liked the images of us screwing around for the last day."

"Bella, they have someone who reads the bonds between people."

"We didn't even use rope last night." I'm trying to keep this light hearted. Somehow this seems very important. I'm not so good with important conversations.

"He knew that our bond, even when I didn't really remember you, was very strong and that it would cloud how I'd deal with being in the organisation."

"So what does this message say that changes that?"

"I'm hoping it's an offer for you to join me in the organisation."

"Is that bad?"

"It's better than the alternative."

"And what's that?"

I know the answer before he says it.

"The alternative is what happened to my parents."

**Next update: 7:35PM**


	43. Chapter 43

**Chapter 43**

**4.33PM**

I open the package more carefully than I was going to earlier.

It needs to be handled with some reverence.

Inside is a beautiful envelope.

The kind you see royalty using in old movies.

Thick parchment with the most elegant handwriting on the front.

I turn it over.

There is an insignia of some kind stamped into black candle wax.

A weird letter intermingled with a lion's head.

I have to go to the kitchen to find a knife to open it.

I think I was given a proper letter opener with a pretty pen about seven years ago.

It would be fitting to open this letter with it, instead of a knife I'm fairly sure came from K-mart.

I cut the envelope carefully.

Edward stands behind me.

I peruse it quickly.

Edward tells me to read it, out loud.

**Next update: secret**


	44. Chapter 44

**Chapter 44.**

**4.44PM**

It doesn't make sense.

_My dearest Miss Swan,_

_By__now__young__Edward__has__regained__his__memory_.

_It was a test. If your bond could over the barriers I had placed upon it, then we would allow Edward the opportunity to have you in his life again._

_Your two paths are inextricably linked it appears._

_We see it fitting then, that your paths should be entangled forever._

_Edward, I grant you permission to let Miss Swan in on the object of your visitation._

_And reinforce your understanding of what needs to be done regardless of what her decision is._

_We hope you shall choose wisely Miss Swan._

_We would very much like to welcome you into our family._

_M._

"Edward what does this mean? What's the purpose of your visit?"

His face is tortured—always tortured. He doesn't want to tell me; when he does it's in a flat croaky voice. Something he has been dreading.

"I'm so sorry, Bella, but either way, I've been sent to kill you."

**Next update: Secret**


	45. Chapter 45

**Chapter 45**

**5.45PM**

"What the fuck Edward?" I'm brandishing the butter knife that I used to open the letter like it's going to be remotely butt fucking helpful.

We have been at an impasse like this for the last hour or so.

"Bella, put it down sweetheart, you are going to hurt yourself."

"It's just a butter knife." My voice is high, semi-hysterical.

"Yep, and that's what I'm afraid of; in your hands a butter knife could be lethal, but only to you. You're a bit of a klutz, babe."

It's true. I am.

"Are you really going to kill me?"

I think about lowering the knife. He's right I would probably wind up injuring myself.

"I don't want to, that's one of the options. The other one, well, they'll have to do it, I can't hurt you Bella. But believe me, I can't stop them."

I throw the knife into the sink. A five-year-old could overpower me.

"Alright, so 'M' has given you permission, but if knowing means that I die, should I know?"

It's an option he hasn't considered.

"You know that I'm alive, if that's what you can call this. That alone signs your death warrant."

"Great. A girl likes options; continue Edward." I think I liked it when he was more of a delusion.

We sit on the couch. At either end, mind you, as if that's going to make this easier.

He starts to spill.

He looks me straight in the eye as he talks. I hold my eyes to his.

Nothing he tells me will make me look away. Particularly because I am worried he is going to kill me five seconds after he finishes talking.

"The night my parents were murdered was an initiation for one of the organisation's members. He was supposed to make a kill and then he would be officially one of them. But he went crazy, ripping out my parents' throats. It was supposed to be more subtle than that, but he couldn't control himself."

"Why couldn't he control himself, why did he rip their throats? As far as murders go it was like he was an animal." The pictures of Liz and George flash in my mind.

"Bella, throw away your forensic science, you're looking at this too objectively. What do your instincts say about this?"

_Blood__loss__incompatible__with__life._ It's all that goes through my head.

**Next update: Secret.**


	46. Chapter 46

**Chapter 46**

**6.23PM**

My instincts are thinking something ridiculous, and my brain is trying to interfere.

Is he in the mafia? Is he going to be a made man by killing me?

Is he human? He looks like my Edward: same eye colour, beating heart.

Should I ask him this question? I try to remember my vampire knowledge.

I laugh at myself.

Yep, trying to remember my vampire knowledge. Like its something real that people have anthropologically studied.

"Bella, what are your instincts telling you?"

"Is this some kind of blood worshipping cult?"

Edward looks like he has had the wind knocked out of him.

"Close."

"Edward, I'm not going to say what I'm thinking out loud. So just say it yourself and save me the time. Are you… are you human?" I say it softly. That way I can retract the statement.

He finally answers.

"Yes, I'm human."

**Next update: secret...sorry, the suspense is killing me too...**


	47. Chapter 47

**Chapter 47**

**6.34PM**

"_Yes, I'm human."_

I breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thank god ,I was freaking out there." And here I was thinking he was in a cult of vampires. What an idiot.

"But not for long, I'm in transition."

**Next update: Really soon...**


	48. Chapter 48

**Chapter 48**

**6.45PM**

"Transition? Transitioning into what?"

"Bella, I've been bitten by a vampire. I just have to feed on human blood, to the point of the person's death and then I'll turn as well."

Oh, of course.

Well at least he's not a delusion like I thought, because that was just plain crazy talk there.

Nope, he's a vampire in transition.

Well, duh, I should've picked up on that earlier. I totally feel stupid now.

**Next update: 7.25PM**


	49. Chapter 49

**Chapter 49.**

**7.25PM**

I think my rain of silence is freaking out Edward; he speaks faster, like what he is going to say is easier on me that way.

"Vampires are ruled by an organisation, like Royalty really, called the Volturi."

Of course vampires have a ruling class. Gotta keep the mythical bloodsuckers all orderly.

"They keep their activities discrete and they do this by having a select set of rules and a process for bringing in new blood."

I laugh. He said, 'new blood'. I'm vacillating between him being a delusion and a vampire again. What a choice. Wow, my mind is going a million miles an hour, playing catch-up.

"Someone in the Volturi was able to see that once I'm fully turned I'll be able to read minds. They also detected that there was a strong bond around me, so thinking it was my parents, they sent a group of initiates to kill them."

_Arterial splatter._

"Riley wasn't suppose to attack me, but once he started killing he couldn't stop, he attacked me, but M, that's Marcus, stopped him, he snapped his neck like a chicken. Marcus fed me his blood stopping me from dying. Eventually he wiped my memory I think, hoping to end our bond. It makes you dysfunctional to the group having a shared loyalty. But even he couldn't destroy what we have."

Okay. Dead boyfriend is half vampire and will be able to read minds.

Helpful skill.

We are bonded. They can read the strength of our love for each other. I think all they would have needed to do was watch me pining for him for the last four years. That's love.

"So why didn't they just kill me? They killed your parents to end a bond, why not just come over here and snap my neck?"

"Marcus gave me his blood. So there is a link between us. If he were to kill you, bond or none, even me not knowing who you are, there would still be that emptiness, it's resonated in him as much as it has in me. You're the missing piece to my puzzle, Bella."

_If you say you complete me, I may kill you myself._

"So he sent you here to kill me? Is that it? If you kill me the bond ends and he can have his little mind reader and be happy?"

"No Bella, it's not like that. His friend killed his wife. He understands more than anyone else what it's like to have your true mate taken from you."

"So what choices do I have here, Edward?"

Death and eternal death.

"Come with me, Bella, I'll turn you myself. Marcus's friend though, Aro, he can't let you go. He'll kill you himself if he has to. He wants my abilities and he has grown tired of waiting. He only let me go this long because life is easier as a vampire if you are in your mid-twenties. Not so many questions about what you are doing when you're an adult."

That was thoughtful. I mean who wants to look like you should be in high school for the rest of your life; that would be torture.

"So you turn me, bite me or whatever, or I get killed anyway?"

He's not really leaving me with all that much choice.

"But if I turn you we get to be together, Marcus has set me up away from the core group, with a nice family, the Cullens. They will help us through the transition and then I'll go and work for them: the Volturi."

I could have a nice life being one of the undead. An eternity with Edward, my undead boyfriend from next door. Hey, we could be that nice undead couple from next door. Maybe we would live next door to the Munsters.

"My parents get left alone? If I come freely can I come back and visit them?"

So many questions.

Who will mow the lawn here if I leave? Who will pick up the post? Do we live here? Do I work still? Is sunny Queensland conducive to vampires? Do you really fry in the sun?

"Bella, I don't want to push you baby, but your choice is simple, don't die ever—"

A small scary blonde girl walked into the room.

I think stealth mode _is_a function they possess.

"Or die now. Your choice Bella, but I know which one would be more fun for me."

**Next update: 7.53PM**


	50. Chapter 50

**Chapter 50.**

**7.53PM**

Edward shoves me behind him.

"Jane, you can't just walk in here and threaten Bella, Marcus has given her the opportunity to decide for herself."

Edward's voice is fearful. Like he's afraid of this… well, child. She doesn't look much older than fifteen. She is small in stature, a regal posture, and she's dressed in a slightly gothic way.

She does have that air about her that requires respect.

Like when you see a red-back spider, you just automatically know not to antagonise it.

This Jane girl is the human version of a red-back spider.

She turns to Edward.

It's like a mother who has grown inpatient with her child and is speaking slowly, like she may explode at any moment.

She simply lifts her index finger to her lips and utters one word.

"Shhhhhhh." She gives Edward a look, her face turning into a contorted smile. The kind I expect serial killers make when they are about to kill.

Edward falls to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain.

She has powers. This is why she seems so dangerous.

I bend down to Edward, offering whatever soothing words and gentle touches that I can. I keep Jane in the corner of my eye at all times.

Like it would make a difference.

I do the one thing I can.

I attempt to rationalise with the red-back.

"Please, Jane, Marcus needs him, please stop what you are doing."

I am hoping that Marcus's name has some pull in their world.

She stops.

I breathe.

Edward coughs like the wind has been blown out of him, the veins in his face are no longer popping out. His muscles relax.

Even in his tortured state he tries to protect me.

"Bella, stay behind me." He struggles to his feet.

I don't think he or I are a match for little Jane.

Jane turns to me.

"I'd rather play with you anyway."

**Next update...5 minutes...enough time to write a review perhaps?**


	51. Chapter 51

**Chapter 51**

**8.00PM**

The smile appears on her face once more.

I brace myself.

Her face changes to a look of concentration.

I brace myself further.

She squeezes her eyes and her face contorts.

She screams out in frustration.

It's blood curdling.

I'm starting to suspect that her power doesn't work on me.

I'm a dud.

I do my best not to laugh.

_You don't antagonise a red-back spider._

Her phone rings.

She screams into it, "WHAT?"

Her face is in more pain than before; she looks me up and down like I am a piece of shit on her shoe.

She throws the phone to Edward.

"Apparently, Aro has a use for you afterall. Fucking Shield."

Edward nods, confirming what the voice on the phone has said to Jane.

Jane smiles and extends her hand.

"Welcome to the family Bella. Choice made. She becomes one of us."

She turns to walk out the door.

"Let's leave on the 4AM flight home, the humidity is fucking up my hair."

**The End.**

**Next update: Will be an epilogue, just to tidy up the loose strings. Gimme a couple of weeks, I need to recover.**

**Thank you to everyone for reading, and to those who reviewed, it was really lovely getting you words of encouragement or getting to see how frustrated you were all along.**

**I really didn't know myself what Edward was, he was just the undead guy next door, and I didn't really know until yesterday where this was going. So kept myself surprised too.**

**Thanks to cocoalvinoz for betaing my dribble, yes I did mean dribble bb. What she doesn't know about the English language probably hasn't been invented yet.**


	52. Epilogue

**A year later,**

**10.28PM**

Having the blood drained from your body is a strangely sexual experience.

We had waited a year before doing this, secretly gotten married and managed to have a baby.

But Aro would wait no longer for his prized Edward.

We had chosen the Cullen house to do the deed. Plenty of experienced vampire turners are downstairs. They are waiting in case they are needed to intervene with Edward.

In case he couldn't control his thirst. Like Riley had been unable to do.

It causes him great turmoil.

But there is nothing we can do. Aro controls our future now.

Our daughter is safely away, lest she become dessert.

We begin the event like any other romantic evening.

We fuck like rabbits.

We giggle, trying to restrain our noises during our sexscapades. After all, there is an audience of vampires downstairs with acute hearing.

I lay on Edward's chest and listen to his heart beat for the last time.

He flips us over.

Suddenly it's serious.

With gentle kisses he makes his way to my neck.

I never was one for pain. I brace myself.

His teeth pierced my skin with little effort.

He stops for a moment.

"I love you, Bella."

I reach up and touch his face, nodding for him to continue. There is no going back now.

I can feel my blood flowing into his mouth, each pulse sending more of my life force down his throat.

As I said earlier, it's a strangely sexual experience. I can feel myself fading and giving in.

It's like the seconds before you know you are going to have an orgasm. It feels really good but you are a little sad that you are going to be pushed over the edge in just moments.

My pulse slows.

Edward demonstrates his restraint.

I sigh when his mouth leaves my neck.

I am too weak to breathe.

I hear the sound of skin tearing. It's not my own.

It's Edward and he is gently placing his wrist in my uncooperative mouth.

"Drink Bella, just a little. Bella, wake up honey, drink baby."

He shakes my body to wake me. I'm annoyed; death is okay. It's so much effort to swallow.

But then I do. I am a mother. I am a wife. I have people to live for. People I have to live an eternity for.

I drink the liquid.

It smells like Edward's house when I found the blood bath. Iron. It smells like iron.

It's fucking delicious.

_**THE END**_

**Okay that's all she wrote folks. Thanks to my beautiful, clever and wonderful Beta, cocoalvinoz. She is getting quite a reputation and her stories might be up your alley. While mine are pure fluff, hers have substance. And really good grammar. Check her out sometime.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed. That was so wonderful getting reviews at all times of the day and night. Evidently I do crave approval and the opinion of the wonderful folk of FF.**

**I am contemplating doing a sequel.**

**Please review and stop me if you think this is a bad idea.**

**I am not writing that this work is complete, just in case I feel like going back and doing some polishing. But the work is completish folks. **

**You can polish a turd can't you?**

**Love Bells.**


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